NADAguides seeing rising interest in trikes, touring scooters

NADAguides is seeing new shopping and research trends in the motorcycle market, with traffic, continual growth and consumer interest in trikes and touring scooters with step through chassis.

Traffic on NADAguides.com shows consumer interest and research growing 15 percent from the second quarter of 2011 to the second quarter of 2012.

“Over the past five years we’ve seen a shift in popularity towards trikes/three-wheel motorcycles and touring scooters,” said Alex Lezama, Motorcycle Market/Data Analysts at NADAguides.com. “Touring scooters provide a good starting point for consumers who are new to motorcycling because they have more stability and are easy to mount and dismount. Also, more and more consumers have been going to aftermarket companies to retrofit their bikes into three-wheelers, so OEMs now offer trike models and/or trike kits to cater to that market. We’ve seen a definite spike in interest for these types of motorcycles over the past six months and it will most likely continue in that direction in the coming months.”

Among the motorcycle segments registering the most interest are touring scooters, or “step-through” chassis models. Touring scooters have recorded a year-over-year traffic increase on NADAguides.com of 24 percent from the second quarter of 2011 to the second quarter of 2012.

Top touring scooter brands searched on NADAguides.com include models from Suzuki, Honda, Yamaha and Vespa, making up 96 percent of the traffic in the segment.

NADAguides analysts note that trikes are also gaining in popularity, registering a year-over-year increase of traffic on the site up 27 percent from the second quarter of 2011 to the second quarter of 2012.

Top trike or three-wheel motorcycle brands searched on NADAguides.com include models from Can-Am, Harley-Davidson, Boss Hoss and Lehman Trikes, making up 93 percent of the traffic in the segment.